Of Ash and Dawn

On a frigid winter night, under the blinding billboard lights of New York City, a pale man was walking alone along the streets. Everything was perfectly normal. Horns were honking. Vendors were yelling for any semblance of attention. The people stopped at every turn. This man was no different. He walked amongst the crowd, occasionally stopping for a pleasant view and a pretzel. His long black hair flew into a passerby’s face from time to time, which earned him a few dirty looks and middle fingers that his “sorry” couldn’t evade. Other than that, there was nothing to note about this pale, dark-haired man.

Everything was typical.

The man walked for hours around Times Square until he came across a dilapidated bar well past midnight. He spun into the alley behind the bar and entered the back door. Along the bar counter sat two women. One was seemingly older, with greying hair, a long nose, and a scowl. The other was a young woman who couldn’t have been over eighteen. her fingers twirled in rapid motion, a silver fountain pen weaving between them. She had shiny blonde hair put into a bun. Her periwinkle eyes lit up when she saw him and her lips curled into a slight smile. The man waved and made his way over to the pair.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he said as he sat down next to the older woman.

“Late as ever, Devadas,” the old woman croaked without sparing him a glance. The man named Devadas chuckled.

“You never change Dr. Almedst.”

She scoffed.

“Neither do you, but for the worst,” Dr. Almedst remarked. “You haven’t even acknowledged your niece”

Devadas turned to the young lady.

“My, my, you’ve grown, Bianca,” he said with a laugh. “You were still a little one when I last saw you. You are seventeen now, if I remember correctly? I’m not even sure you should be in here.”

Bianca smiled. She ceased twirling her pen.

“Eighteen,” she corrected. “But always a pleasure to see you, Uncle. I wish this meeting was under better circumstances.”

The air around the trio shifted. Bianca’s smile faltered. Devadas readjusted himself a bit in his chair. Dr. Almedst cleared her throat.

“Enough dilly dallying. I hope you brought the list, Devadas?”

Devadas looked behind his back and pulled out his phone. “Here. I already pulled the list up.” He passed it to Dr. Almedst. She looked at the list up and down.

“Give me a run-down. Names mean nothing to me. I only care whether they can be of help to us,” Dr. Almedst stated after a minute of silence.

“You always were an impatient one,” he murmured. Bianca, turning her body towards him, began listening closely as well. “Bianca, you are invaluable to the operation.”

“Everyone on the list has some connection to Hallad. Most of the connections from this world stem from the rift between Earth and Hallad. Just the last one, not any of the previous ones, like I thought. Just the one from nearly seventeen years ago. All the names are spread out around the Earth. Gathering all of them will take some time, even by our standards. I put the top prospects in the second column.” He gestured to a part of the screen.

“Right there, Dr. Almedst.”

Dr. Almedst looked at the few names on the right. She scowled.

“Why are there only five names here? You couldn’t find anyone else who might have potential?”

Devadas shook his head.

“After months of observation, these are the only ones that have both the proper skill set and energy that we need. Not to say the others are worthless. There are places for them. But only these five are the ones that can survive the Academy and help us in the long run.”

“Five is not nearly enough to help us! Months of work and this is all we have to show for it?” Dr. Almedst exclaimed.

“You asked me to find the only ones who have potential to rival our top students at the Academy or Bianca here, and unfortunately, this is all. Our resources are not unlimited, Dr. Almedst.”

“I’m being perfectly reasonable! We cannot stop him with our numbers as it stands.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Devadas hissed, his voice rising. He glared over at the doctor. “I have been fighting for a decade for our cause, but I have gotten nowhere! Barely anyone from Hallad has the will to take him on and we are forced to find people from this doomed, hick world!”

Bianca stood and grabbed his arm.

“Fighting will get us nowhere. We have little time left,” Bianca remarked. Dr. Almedst and Devadas glanced at each other before sighing.

“When Earth and Hallad bleed together,” Devadas continued, “everyone on the list will hopefully have completed the Academy training. The first two on the list are closest to us, so we can start there tomorrow. They’re siblings, so it makes it easier. Bianca, you are going undercover as a student, starting next week.”

“Understood.”

“We cannot scare them and lose valuable time. We have only one shot at this, so we must get it right. Dr. Almedst, continue your research while determining exactly how much time we have left.”

“Understood,” Dr. Almedst said with a grimace.

“I will connect with the others across the globe and monitor the names on the list.”

Devadas’ eyes darted around the room, but suddenly looked directly ahead.

“We have company.”

Bianca quickly scanned around the bar and ceased twirling with her pen once again. No one was paying anything attention to them, as a basketball game was on. Drunk patrons were laughing and shouting, with no care in the world. If only they knew, Bianca thought briefly.

Dr. Almedst turned to Devadas.

“Nobody is he–,” she started. Devadas grabbed her and Bianca’s hands and stood up. He dragged them to the back door and hurried out.

“Devadas, what are you doing?” Dr. Almedst exclaimed. Devadas, without saying a word, continued to drag them further and further away from the bar until they blended into a crowd in Times Square.

Bianca could feel a cold sweat form on her uncle’s hand. She looked up and into his eyes and only saw fear. She opened her mouth to say something, but she caught something out of the corner of her eye. A man with a black trench coat was looking directly at them. Bianca quickly looked down and kept with Devadas and Dr. Almedst, but an unease settled over her. After 100 more yards, she looked up and saw the man was no longer there. .

Devadas suddenly began walking even faster.

“Follow me,” he whispered harshly. He walked for a few seconds longer before pulling into an alleyway.

“You best explain yourself, Devadas,” Dr. Almedst said. “What the hell is going on?”

Devadas turned back and looked at the older woman. He hastily shoved a piece of paper into her hands.

“I do not have time to explain. But I need you to go to this address. They will explain everything to you there. Make sure Bianca is safe.”

“First off, Bianca is top ten at the best academy in our world. She can handle herself,” Dr. Almedst started.

“This is no time for your sass—”

“Second, you have ten seconds to explain what is going on before I snapped!”

“Mom–,” Devadas began.

“Ooh, a little family dispute. Those are always fun,” a smooth voice behind the coaxed.

All three turned to the interrupter. Devadas’s complexion turned even paler than before. Standing before them was the same man with the long, black trench coat.

“Let’s go somewhere a bit more private, shall we?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the man leaped forward and grabbed the trio before they could react. Devadas felt himself get nauseous, blinked, and found himself in an unfamiliar desert. He could feel the sand trickle into his shoes.

“Bianc–AHHH!”

A shooting pain had interrupted Devadas’ cry. He felt a trickle of warm blood roll down his neck. He looked to see the man had injected him with a long, keen needle. Devadas lurched over and fell to the ground as his knees buckled, unable to move.

“Devadas!” Bianca cried. She curled her fist and threw a punch at the man, which he easily dodged. Bianca tried again with similar results. The man jumped back.

“Feisty, are we?” He taunted.

“What the hell did you do to my uncle?” Bianca replied. She snuck a quick look back and saw Dr. Almedst peering over Devadas with concern. Dr. Almedst made direct eye contact with Bianca and gave her the slightest of smiles.

“Permission granted for combat, Bianca,” she said.

“With pleasure,” Bianca responded with a smirk. Without a moment’s hesitation, Bianca pulled out her fountain pen and clicked it. The silver fountain pen instantaneously transformed into a scythe. Her scythe gave off a gleaming light and intimidating presences. Although it was about the same height as her, the scythe seemed almost larger than life.

“You,” Bianca started while steadying her scythe, “have one chance to explain who are and what you are doing here.”

The man looked at Bianca’s scythe. Then back at her. He started leering. Then laughing.

“You think you are going to do anything to me? Look at you. You are already shaking. You are not prepared to kill!” He taunted. Bianca lunged at him with an intensity she had never felt. Swinging her scythe, she let out a cry.

“You bastard!”

BANG. Bianca found herself knocked back several feet in the air. She landed on the ground with a sickening, crushing THUD.

“Bianca!” Dr. Almedst called out.

What the hell was that, Bianca thought. She slowly got to her feet and picked up her scythe, steadying herself for another barrage.

“WAIT,” Devadas croaked. He tried to stand up, but was knocked back down with excruciating pain.

“Damn it,” Devadas moaned. He looked up at Bianca.

“I’m sorry.”

Devadas grabbed Dr. Almedst and pushed her towards Bianca. Before either could protest, he lifted his hands, and not a moment later, they were both gone.

Bianca blinked and found herself in another unfamiliar area. It wasn’t the desert that she was in, but what appeared to be a small village.

“Where in the world did that he send us?” Dr. Almedst grunted while on the ground. Bianca helped her grandma up, without a clue where they were.

“We have to get back to help him,” Bianca declared. Dr. Almedst shook her head.

“He knows something about that man that we obviously don’t. He must’ve––”

BOOM. Dr. Almedst was interrupted by a loud sound. The pair looked up to the west and saw a plume of smoke rising from deep within the desert.

“DEVADAS!”